A Conversation About Drones: Rules and Regulations

As we are getting ready to close out 2014, personal drones have become a hot topic all year. From everyday users uploading exciting aerial video, to industries planning on implementing drones in the near future, the way people are viewing these miniature aircraft is rapidly changing.

As the Insurance industry is already planning its own drone strategy, we felt it would be important to read up and find out about drones and how they will impact our future. So for the next few weeks we will be publishing a few short articles about drones.

Drones: Rules and Regulations

Currently the rules governing drones are murky; the FAA has rules in place for individuals to pilot drones, but there is currently nothing in place for businesses that would like to use this technology. Technically any business operating a drone for commercial purposes could be subject to FAA fines.

In 2011 an individual was fined by the FAA for flying a drone commercially, which a Federal Judge later overturned the penalty. The court case set the tone for the current rules to be clarified, and also put Congress on a path that led them to passing legislation that would provide commercial drone rules by September 2015. Most experts agree that commercial rules will take much longer than the current due date. Even now there are hints that current rules and regulations may be changing, even for consumers.

The FAA recently granted 6 commercial drone licenses to businesses as part of a pilot program to study commercial drone regulation. The FAA recognizes that certain industries would like to explore drone technology, however, creating rules does not happen over night.

Fortunately states have been slightly more proactive than the FAA, and nearly every state has some kind of law regarding drones; many more are still debating the issue.